NCSL tailors education to pupils' needs

The National College for School Leadership (NCSL) has issued a supplement to their magazine for school leaders entitled “Personalised Learning – Tailoring Solutions for Every Pupil”. The NCSL is very active in the area of personalisation, focusing on pupils’ individual learning styles, motivation and needs.

The article focuses not on what personalised learning is, but rather how personalised learning is becoming a reality in schools, and how this can bring a dramatic shift in the education system.

The ultimate goal according to David Hopkins, Head of DfES Standards and Effectiveness Unit is “engaging parents and pupils in partnership with teachers and support staff to deliver a tailor-made service for students, so that they can achieve the highest possible standards”. Personalisation in this case then, isn’t going to a child-centric extreme, allowing them free rein as it suits their “learning style”, but allowing teachers and learners to work with existing standards and the curriculum in the manner which returns the best results for them.

This is where school leadership is important. As Mike Gibbons, Lead Director of the Innovation emphasises “We must go beyond the rhetoric of personalised learning to find out how we lead a school so that every customer within that school is getting something which is personalised for their benefit and for their individual advance.”

To demonstrate the application of personalisation are examples from three schools – proving that personalisation has moved beyond the theory and into the classroom.

Read the full article on the NCSL website

For more information on personalisation and learning, read our white papers:

Personalisation

Higher Education